wordless wednesday

"boys being boys"

ok, not so wordless. thought i'd ease myself back into blogdom.

here is the first i hope of more to come.

princess me

another found image on the laptop. gonna have to bite the bullet and get a new printer/scanner if i want to continue with these weekly updates. i've pretty much exhausted my online stash of photos.

any suggestions on an all-in-one that's reliable and good for printing pics?

aaron's birthday weekend starts with a 10k in the a.m. for some reason, this is how he wants to start his day. ran a half marathon last weekend and now he's a running machine. somehow i foresee all our future trips/vacations involving some type of race or run. avery and i, a.k.a his travelling cheer section, are along for the ride. go a-wes.

the rest of the day will be spent at the nc zoo with the little man. please make the temps bearable. that's all i'm asking. thank you in advance.

fashion forward friday

my printer/scanner is on the fritz so i've had to resort to photos i have on my computer/email. a few months ago my dad reconnected with an old friend who shared some photos he had from the 70s. i don't remember when this was taken but it's me with his two sons. it's crazy there are pictures of me out there that i have never seen and could possibly never see.

i was very fashion forward for a toddler. pairing stripes with plaid and a sundress. i guess i have my mom to thank for that.

flashback friday

to help me get back into the swing of blogging again, i'm introducing a weekly assignment for myself - flashback friday. i had another picture in mind but it would have involved walking downstairs and scanning the photo. so my lazy butt searched my laptop and found this lovely photo.

so this is a flash"way"back photo. i'm guessing it was taken in 1978. i look 3ish and brian 2ish. it's either seoul or taegu korea and we're with our youngest older cousin. i thought this was an appropriate first photo since my mom is about to head back to her homeland in a few weeks. she's flying solo but we're hoping the next time she goes, i/we can go with.

and so it begins...again.

a conversation between two friends

neglected, i know. with the weather being the way it has, (got another 4 inches of snow yesterday.) avery and i have become big-time home bodies. what's the best way to cure cabin fever? fill your days with lots of activities. one of those activities has been our countless photo sessions. although most of the time avery is an indifferent participant.

i've been gravitating towards black and white lately. no particular reason. just love how it captures the moment, particularly the one below. i think if it was in color it'd be a cluttered mess.

"happy chaos"

roly poly

today was the big ultrasound day! the lady was quite surprised when i showed up alone. she told me people usually bring a barrage a peeps for the viewing. i really didn't even think about asking anyone to come along. awes is working everyday this week and this is pretty much the last week baby westphal would be viewable before space becomes limited in there. i knew i'd be getting a video of the whole session to share with anyone who wanted to see so i wasn't too concerned. i am kinda happy i didn't bring anyone along because i don't think the session would have lasted as long as it did if someone else was there.

the lady warned me there was the possibility we wouldn't get any good pics since i was a little further along than they'd like to see. she said the optimal time is between 28-30 weeks. the video below is pretty much what she got as soon as she put the wand up to my stomach. "whoa, i don't think we're gonna have a problem with this little one." she told me. she kept telling me how she always has a hard time getting good face shots and how she usually only gets shots of the hands and feet. but baby westphal was the complete opposite. she got plenty of good face shots and had the hardest time getting a shot of a foot or his "bits and pieces."

so the whole time she's doing the ultrasound she's recording EVERYTHING for me! i now have an hour long video of the whole session. unfortunately i don't know how to get video clips easily off the dvd she gave me (not sure if i have the right software or file formats.) so i had to play it on the computer and record with my phone. that's why the quality isn't that great. this is literally the first 41 seconds of the session. she pretty much switched over to 4d mode afterwards. i'm gonna have to find a really good spot to make a shorter clip of that part.

the session lasted a little over an hour, which was half an hour longer than they told me it would last. "you're my last patient today so we can take as long as we want." sweet. i came out with an hour long dvd, a huge stack of photos and a disk of all the photos she took during the session. i definitely think it was money well spent.

iron like a lion in zion

as promised, here is the flickr set of aaron's recent trip to zion national park.

rock and roll

here's a pic of what is currently happening at the westphal abode. our house is officially becoming a mountain home. we've been talking about rocking the exposed sides of the house since we bought it a couple of years ago. it just looked unfinished to us. and with the pipe bursting last winter it left a huge water stain on the cement in the front. it's amazing what a little rock can do, the house looks like it's gotten a featherlift.

here's a little preview of aaron's hiking trip to zion national park.
i'll post the flickr photos once i upload and resize all the them. also i'll post my 26 week belly shot in a few too.

rebirth

okay, a bit on the dramatic side. i finally finished all the twilight books and can now continue on with daily life. my first priority was to upload all the photos from the last 2 weeks, i guess it's almost 3 now. time sure does fly. included but not limited to is our trip back to illinois/missouri, a few pics from the boone derm picnic and adrian and katie's visit to the high country. i have a few pics on a disposable camera i have yet to develop so they should be coming soon as well.

things should be getting back to normal around here. and either later tonight or tomorrow i'll update the baby status.

daily morningness

one of my friends, janett, started up a website yesterday and asked me to participate. mornings lets you follow a group of photographers (amateur and pro) all around the world as they show you a little piece of their morning. the good, the bad and the ugly. this project is wholly inspired by the book, "A Year of Mornings, 3,191 miles apart" by Stephanie Congden Barnes and Maria Vettese.

i originally took this photo, the first thing i see when i open my eyes, but it was a little blah so i went with my old standby. lucky for me, marley was up for a photo session this morning. i'm not much of a morning person, so it'll be interesting to see how long i can go. if i can post one a week, i'll be happy!

mobile upload

random picture on my cell phone. what you'll see riding in my mother's automobile. and yes, he bobs. happy mother's day, mom!

welcome to birdland

this past weekend we headed to maryland for a quick visit with the fam. one of the weekend's highlights was our first mlb game of the season. orioles vs. rangers. luckily our seats were in the shade. well, i should say mom and dad's season tickets were in the scorching sun. fortunately after the 5th inning we were all able to sit together in the shade. here's more pics from the game as well as pics from the weekend before when aaron was able to use his new fly-fishing pole for the first time. didn't catch anything but had a fun time trying.

found foto

"hold on a sec. i saw something i need to get." we wait for the girls that pulled in ahead of us to get out of their car. "is it money?" he asks. "no, even better!" i hop out of the car and grab the polaroid next to the girl's car door. i had spotted it on our way back to the car after eating dinner monday night. it was upside-down, but the instant i saw it, i knew what it was.

"why do you want this?" looking at the photo.

"haven't you ever seen those websites dedicated to found photos?"

"no."

i knew once i saw what was actually in the photograph, it wasn't worthy of submitting. blogworthy, maybe. but it was funny how excited i got when i spotted it. check out these sites and you'll see why. i found your camera, found photos on flickr, and found magazine.

no artificial colors added

me just messing with the camera.

my muse

what wear you?

they've been sitting out on the back porch for a month now. stepped in a nice pile of poo and haven't had the desire to clean them off. so there they sit. maybe when the weather gets warmer they'll get a little love. hmmm, i'm doing laundry now. maybe i'll just toss them in.

remember the "butt hugging" jeans i bought a few years back? now they're referred to as my "bon jovi" jeans. the knees are blown out, the denim has become paper thin and a slight tug tends to cause a major rip. indeed, they are in a fragile state yet i continue to wear them. as long as the holes are in modest areas they are still functional. at least in my opinion. do you have an article of clothing you're unwilling to part with?

shoot, dawg

i haven't done too much with the new camera. been a little preoccupied with life. i think the pups are getting wise to my picture taking. rarely, do i get them looking directly at the camera. it's like they know and intentionally shun the lens. with marley a little shake-shake of her toy will get her looking somewhat at me. and yes, the look is intense. bosco's a word man. rabbit, treat and walk gets me an inquisitive stare. i have to laugh, aaron and i are now spelling all of those words in his presence. and i'm pretty sure he's starting to pick that up too!

cloning

aaron's office is having a holiday party on thursday. one of the projects they're doing has something to do with baby/childhood photos. they asked me if i'd scan the photos and put them in a powerpoint presentation. no problem. one of the pics had seen better days, so i decided to do a quick edit to it with the cloning feature in photoshop. not too shabby for 10 minutes of work. if i took a little more time, i'd be able to fix/adjust some of the lighting and tape stains/watermarks. i mainly worked on the creases and tears. pretty cool.

halloween shebang

unfortunately, i don't remember what year this was. we had a little lag time where we didn't dress up and this falls within that 2002-2004 block. yes, that's "miss aaron" striking her best pose. although i think she went by another name that evening. roxie seems to come to mind.

we didn't get a photo together this year. my costumes always seem to pale in comparison to aaron's. he definitely goes above and beyond with a little help from me. i always have more fun dressing him then myself (see richard simmons in previous post). this particular year i was a "roller girl" scooting around on skates all evening. i do remember giving the shorts away to a co-worker for her 12 year-old daughter. she came back the next day and told me they fit her 6 year-old. yes, they were that tight!

i'm going to go ahead and post the rest of our halloween photos. can you tell i'm in dress-up sorta mood and contemplating whether or not to host a party this year because of it?

halloween 2005, spastic child in footed pjs and the asian boy george.

halloween 2006, devil woman and bat girl. this year my bachlorette party took place the weekend of halloween. everyone dressed up and we hit up the landing in st. louis. this is one of my favorite photos from the evening.

halloween 2001